heartrending

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   That causes great grief, anguish or distress.

   • Near-synonyms: heartbreaking, heartwrenching
   • It wavered an instant—then there was a heartrending crash—and the canary-coloured cart, their pride and their joy, lay on its side in the ditch, an irredeemable wreck.
2. 2

   That elicits deep sympathy.

   • I am suddenly assaulted by the most heartrending puppy-dog eyes I've ever seen as Emi pouts.
   • Oh, Marilla, it was heartrending. Mr. Phillips made such a beautiful farewell speech beginning, ‘The time has come for us to part.’ It was very affecting. And he had tears in his eyes too, Marilla.
   • These walls, under close examination, reveal messages carved in desperation by long ago victims. “If I must die, I beg it be done quickly,” reads one heartrending scrawl, signed by a man known only as Anthony.

The neighborhood

• synonymsoulrending